ABSTRACT
One of the most basic questions faced by psychology is ‘why are we all different?’ Of course in some ways we are all much the same, for example in the structure of our brains and the mechanisms of perception and memory. However there are huge differences between us in the ways we think, feel and behave in different situations. The psychology of personality is concerned with these individual differences. Pervin (1993) offered a simple working definition of personality: Personality represents those characteristics of the person that account for consistent patterns of behaviour. Broadly, four factors influence how we respond in any given situation: our genetic make-up, our past experience, the nature of the situation in which we find ourselves and our free will. Each of these factors is emphasised by one or more theories of personality.
